FEED and nutrition are a vital part of Iain Nicholson’s sheep operation at Wannamal.
With minimal rain recorded over summer he said his grazing feed still had a bit of strength to it.
“I don’t want any rain just yet,” Mr Nicholson said.
“The sheep are looking solid at the moment and the feed we have is still holding on.”
Mr Nicholson said he was still busy feeding and checking water because he wanted the best for his 3000 breeding ewes and weaners.
“We are also giving them minerals and supplements every week,” he said.
“It has a cost, but we are buying quality minerals with Vitamins A, D and E.”
Buying a one tonne pellet a week through summer, Mr Nicholson said every mob received as much as they can.
“We go around every week topping the minerals up,” he said.
“As soon as one pellet is empty I will order another two.
“A tonne is worth about $800, but I don’t care about the cost because they need it.”
Mr Nicholson said the minerals could decrease feed demand by 30 per cent and increase feeding efficiency.
He also has a strong focus on mineral deficiencies, drenching his young sheep for Selenium deficiency.
“My sheep are healthy, which is the main thing,” he said.
“You won’t get the best out of your sheep if they are mineral deficient.”
Now Mr Nicholson is also feeding grain and hay out quite heavily, which is probably a bit early but he said it was necessary.
Feeding mainly oats and lupins, he said there is still a bit of pasture and he hasn’t had any rain to ruin it.
“As we get on to the end of summer, we will ramp up the hay more to keep them on some roughage,” he said.
“A couple of mobs are already getting hay and we have been putting mobs on troughs and permanent water too in case we have a summer water problem.”
This year Mr Nicholson started to feed his stock because he has downsized his property after losing some lease blocks.
Taking advantage of the property cut back to 1416 hectares, Mr Nicholson had a ‘spring clean’ of his flock.
“We are back to a young flock again,” he said.
“We have gone through every mob on the property and got rid of anything that looks sideways.
“There were a lot of old ewes we were carrying for the extra land that we had but now we have 1700 stud ewes and 1000 commercial ewes plus weaners.”
His flock has about 3000 ewes, down from last year when he mated 4500 ewes.
“We were heading towards being a total sheep enterprise anyway but this hurried it along,” he said.
“In saying that, I will put a bit of crop in again but it won’t be a lot.”
Last year Mr Nicholson didn’t put in any crop, other than 60ha of oats for the sheep to graze and 40ha of oaten hay, because of the reduction in land.
After grazing his oats through the winter he still managed to harvest 2.5 tonnes per hectare which will be used for feed over summer.
Last season he also cut 500 rolls of hay for his livestock, which will be used for extra roughage.
In previous seasons Mr Nicholson has grown canola to help get his sheep through winter and let his pastures get away.
“I graze my canola in winter, I am big on grazing them, so I can pasture manage,” he said.
“I grow clover under my canola and I promote my clover growth underneath the canola canopy.
“I find it drops the yield a little in the canola but my oil compensates for that and I also get grazing benefits out of it.”
Mr Nicholson said it’s a lot easier to sow the canola dry if he doesn’t have an early break.
Dry seeding means there is no requirement for knock down chemicals which will damage the clover growth.
Mr Nicholson will also hold back from spraying Atrazine until it rains.
Then he will only use Atrazine and insecticide for the whole season.
“We get really good fertility rates when we put the sheep on the canola and clover leading up to breeding,” Mr Nicholson said.
“They don’t touch your canola if you have something growing underneath it.
“I have sat there and watched them and they walk along and they pick the centre out of the clover plants but they won’t touch the canola.”
Going through the books last week, Mr Nicholson said canola was on the table for this year with a predicted dry start to the season.
Mr Nicholson has also just finished mating his ewes and pulled his rams out in the last week.
He hopes for a reasonable break so there isn’t too much stress on his ewes as feed runs out into April.
